THREE F/SHEKS, AND SOME BIG FISH 141 



and as the stretch of the water is three-quarters of a 

 mile across at high tide, harling is the usual and only 

 reasonable method of fishing adopted. The fly was 

 practically abandoned, not rising more than one to six 

 as compared with the minnow, and that one never 

 more than a sea-trout. 



The 'Night with a Salmon' was the last night but 

 one of the rod season of 1868, and the fish was 

 hooked at about half-past twelve in the morning, 

 high tide having been about ten. The monster took 

 the minnow on the lightest of the three lines, a mere 

 makeshift, composed of two trout lines seventy and 

 fifty yards long, the splice of which had not been 

 tried. lie first went nearly out to sea, playing the 

 boat rather than the boat playing him, and having 

 the full advantage of both tide and current. Many 

 dangers had to be surmounted : lirst the Sperling 

 nets with their high poles and ropes, and then the 

 channel of the South Deep, where Mugdrum Island 

 divides the Tay into two streams and the bottom is 

 'gey foul," and the tide runs like a mill race. At half- 

 past three the boat approached Xe\\ burgh, with its 

 wild expanse of estuary beyond, and for the lirst and 

 last time touched the shore for a second, but not 

 long enough for either passenger to land. The 

 writer gives a vivid account uf the sorrows of the 



